Ballistic shifts

(A day later)

"Is it just me or does she look bigger?"

Cass' quiet words were meant for Lissandra's ears only and Lissandra nodded just a little as Lilly caught the long thing that Lissandra had tossed halfheartedly. The Kubrow looked very pleased with herself as she dragged the long rubberized rod back towards her humans. They had all three been quite bored in the large cargo bay so, they had asked for something to do that would not cause problems and it had been provided.

"She is bigger." Lissandra knelt down to take the stick from Lilly and gave the Kubrow a scratch behind the ears as Lilly looked up at her expectantly. "You are growing up, Lilly." Lissandra said as she continued to scratch.

I am still yours and you are still mine. Lilly replied. Size doesn't matter.

"It might actually." Cass snickered as both female glared at him. "And no, I am not being obscene."

Why do I not believe you? Lilly demanded, but her rumbles were contented rather than upset as her human partner continued to scratch.

"Because you are a smart Kubrow." Lissandra was quick with a smiled rejoinder. Cass gave her a betrayed look, but she ignored him to focus on the now happily panting Kubrow. "That said, size can be a disadvantage at times." She shook her head. "Growing up in Fortuna, we both learned what being small was good for."

"Getting into places that others could not. Places grown ups could not get into. The vents were where I lived after my parents died." Cass agreed, his eyes far away. He paused as Lilly rose, stepped to his side and nuzzled his hand. "I am all right, Lilly. Just sad. I worked hard to forget that part of my life."

And now, you have to go back. Lilly said softly, still nuzzling his hand. So the sadness is back too.

"Yes." Cass sighed. "I left a long time ago. None of the names that we were told mean anything to me. You?" He asked Lissandra who frowned and shook her head.

"The name we were given, 'Eudico', sounds familiar, but I am not sure from where." Lissandra mused. "I do not think I knew her, but there is lot I don't remember from after the purges until I woke in the Clergy's hospital." She slumped a bit. "I know my family did not survive but part of me wishes I knew what happened. The rest of me is pretty sure she does not want to know."

"I know that feeling." Cass replied, giving Lilly a scratch. Lissandra looked at him and he shook his head. "I… Uh… I looked. After I was in Special Forces, they don't want us to have any loose ends so, they clean them up. For me? They didn't have to. It was an accident, not enemy action and to this day, I wish I hadn't been curious."

"Special Forces kill people who might be liabilities?" Lissandra asked weakly.

"Not always. That is the fastest solution, but not always the best." Cass shrugged. "What we do is not nice, polite or even clean. We have to be free to act in ways that others find repugnant. It does not always work out that way, we are human and fallible, but it gives potential enemies far less leverage on us if we are blank slates. Everything is recorded, backed up, so our genetics are known and enemies who ID us will use any information they can find to try and subvert us. Like what Anyo did when he took me. Even fake identities don't help unless we fuzz our DNA and that sucks bigtime."

Such energy as was needed to fundamentally alter DNA could do all kinds of damage to fragile human forms.

"That is not something you can do after each mission, no. But you have." Lissandra winced as Cass nodded. "I um… I hope I never have to. My ability would likely keep it from working." Lilly looked at her and Lissandra shrugged. "It would not work and not be pleasant." She looked at her chronometer. "Time?"

"Not yet." Cass replied. "Soon." He patted the holstered Detron at his hip and looked at her as she stared down at the holster on her own hip. She had not drawn the Spectra since he had given it to her. "I know the pistol makes you uncomfortable, but we cannot let him push around. If we let him, he will walk all over us, put us both in slave collars or worse."

"He knows that if he does, the Reverend Mother rips him to pieces slowly. Let alone what the Special Forces have been doing." Lissandra snarled and both of the others looked at her. "I… I am angry. Furious even. Both that I have to come back at all and that my life is dependent on people that terrify me." She shook her head. "I never thought to see Board Members about to wet themselves."

That had been one for the record books indeed. Both that Rachel had let the pair of them watch the Reverend Mother rip Anyo apart in perfectly legal and bloodless holographic combat disguised as debate and then what the Board and decreed. That Cass and Lissandra would be allowed to try and stop the mess from getting any worse. Nothing had been said about 'afterwards'. Both humans feared what that meant. The Tenno were calm. The clan that Tiana led considered Lissandra a sister now and had pledged protection as well as assistance if needed, but Tenno were incredibly vulnerable to such things. That made sense, when one thought about it. Tenno were energy and neural energy was what the game program manipulated with ease. Probably why Anyo had started investigating it in the first place after all of his humiliating defeats at Tenno hands.

"A first for me too. None of them had any idea what he had done until she showed them the files." Cass replied. "Even Anyo seemed subdued for a moment after she told them what he had done. How close he mirrored the horror of the past. The only thing that saved any of his fortune was that he clearly had no idea what he was doing. The fines the Board will levy would likely make Frohd Bek wince but it is far better than us all being destroyed."

"That is the reason the Clergy exists." Lissandra sighed, relaxing a bit. "To keep such things from destroying us all."

Whatever Cass was going to say in response was cut off as the floor underneath them lurched. Lilly barked in fear as Lissandra and Cass grabbed each other. They sank to the floor around Lilly who was quaking in fear.

"What was that?" Lissandra demanded as the floor lurched again.

"We are on final approach to the facility!" Cass snapped, his focus far away as he queried the ship's automated systems. No one had dared use a manned transport to drop them at their target for fear of the game subverting the pilots. Rookie Cyberlancer or no, Cass made a darned good pilot for drone ships. "The automated defenses are firing on us! That doesn't make any sense! We have all the right codes!"

"What part of any of this makes sense!?" Lissandra demanded as Cass shoved her towards a hatch marked 'escape pods'. "Are we close enough to walk?"

"It is the Vallis! Your guess is as good as mine!" Cass snarled as he slid with her towards the natch. Lilly half ran, half slid and then careened into the hatch, slapping the 'open' switch with a paw. Cass smiled at her and then slammed his helmet visor closed. "Lissandra, close your helmet!"

She tried. She was activating it when a thunderous impact drove all thought from Lissandra's mind. Her last sight was Cass reaching for her.

Later

She was cold. So cold. She was lying on a surface that was cold, but warm. Familiar.

Voices came from far away.

"Here! She is here! Oh my god! Get her into the pod! Now!" Many people were talking as hands grabbed hold of Lissandra, and pain flared all across her body.

Something changed. Air pressure? White hot agony tore through Lissandra and she screamed as loud as she could. A croak sounded. Was that her voice?

"No." The voice from close at hand said sternly. "Don't try to talk or move, Operative Lissandra. You are a mess." The voice was female, and familiar. She was also clearly in charge. "Who the hell shot the ship down? Tell Medical we have her and are bringing her in Code Three. She needs surgery now!"

"Cass!" Lissandra tried to plead and then it all went away.

She was floating in something…

No, she was lying on a hard bed as someone wiped her face with a soft cloth...

She was on a hard metal table as cold metallic hands touched her. Familiar machinery moved around her, sharp edges glistening in the harsh light. A pressure on her nose and mouth and a hiss and she was falling...

She was…

Still later

Lissandra woke to familiar sounds. She knew without opening her eyes that she was in the medical ward of Fortuna. The sounds were so familiar it hurt. Her first memories were of this place and a soft, sad voice that she would never hear again.

"I know you are awake." The female voice was not one she knew, but she had heard it. Eudico, the appointed floor boss of Fortuna. "You should be able to talk."

"How bad?" Lissandra still did not open her eyes.

"None of the medics expected you to survive." Eudico said quietly. "They do not know the truth. I have stepped on them calling it a miracle."

"It is not one." Lissandra opened her eyes and the room was dark. She turned her head and nothing hurt. She saw the gray body from that sat nearby and the cybernetic head nodded to her. "My companions?"

"Two escape pods were launched and the defenses didn't fire on either of them. They blew the rest of the ship to pieces." Eudico said with a sigh. "No one has any idea why they fired to begin with. None of us anyway. Anyo's goons are falling all over themselves trying to placate their boss. From how they are reacting? They didn't do it either."

"All the codes were his, so it shouldn't have happened." Lissandra sat up, checking herself automatically. Her body was pristine, as always. Her ability did not like her being injured. She had even regenerated lost limbs. "I need to get to the facility."

"Anyo is demanding that you be carried there in an armored convoy." Eudico had a frown in her voice.

"If it is broadcasting his codes, won't the defenses activate?" Lissandra said slowly and Eudico nodded.

"We know the Taxmen have lost troops and proxies trying to get in." Eudico replied. "They won't say how many, but lots. And as to why? No one has any idea."

"Cass said all the codes were current, so..." Lissandra shook her head as she saw a Corpus ship suit laid out nearby. It looked brand new. "Anyone trying to get in with his authority gets shot at?" She inquired and Eudico nodded. "That sounds like someone has subverted the place."

"No one we know." Eudico replied. "And believe me as soon as you went down, we got crowded. The Tenno in particular are not happy. Personally? Not happy about having Clergy running around, but I am not going to argue with them when the Tenno are not."

"Cass?" Lissandra asked.

"When we got to the other escape pod, it was empty." Eudico slumped a bit. "There were signs of a human and Kubrow in it, but no one was there when we searched. No tracks, no nothing. No bodies." She offered.

"Then I am not counting him out." Lissandra stood up, ignoring the fact that she was not wearing anything to pull the Corpus suit to herself. As she had half expected, it was marked as one of Anyo's. She wadded it up and tossed it aside. Eudico was clearly staring at her as Lissandra shook her head. "I am not his and I refuse to wear his crap. Not the least of which because it has to have a bunch of sensors and stuff in it. Also, anything that is marked as his is likely a target."

"They have been disabled." Eudico said slowly as Lissandra rose to her full height. "You would walk out like that. Starkers."

"You are damned right I would." Lissandra faced the floor boss, not giving an inch. Eudico moved to block the door, her own posture resigned.

"You are still hurt, girl." The leader of Fortuna said with a sigh. "I ain't gonna let you go get yourself killed. Not after all of this."

"You can't stop me." Lissandra felt a feeling start to build. A feeling she had denied for along, long time. It wasn't anger. It wasn't rage. It wasn't anything that most mental specialists would recognize. The few who would? They would run! The white bandage that scoured her emotions clean did what it did. The feeling that Lissandra had denied for most of her life took over and Eudico took a sudden step back. "And I am not the one who is going to die if you do not get out of my way."

"What are you, girl?" Eudico all but begged that as she blocked the door with her body. Lissandra did not move.

"She looks nothing like her, but the voice? The manner? It is her. Cassandra's daughter." An unexpected voice had both females spinning to the wall as a hidden hatch slid aside and a bent form stepped in. Her face was visible behind its normally closed hatch and it was pale. "I didn't believe it. Gee. Oh my god, girl. Long time. You ain't aged at all."

"Zuud? What?" Eudico stared from the newcomer to Lissandra and then she hissed. "Cassandra? The nurse?" She gasped. "The nurses'...! Gee?! Oh no!" Terror blossomed.

Then again? The girl known as Gee had earned such feelings from all sorts. There was a very good reason that the Reverend Mother had kept Lissandra away from any conflict for so long that had nothing to do with worry about her life. It had everything to do with the lives of everyone else! Gee had been a borderline sociopath personality before several scum taxmen had taken her and hurt her as a child after her dad had been killed trying to stop them from doing it. After? She had been a weapon. No more. One that various people had used and learned to never use again. She wasn't sure if the Tenno knew, but if so? They would understand.

"Move." Lissandra said in a totally dead voice and Eudico shook her head, but Zuud stepped forward, an oblong thing in her hand that she held out to Lissandra. A pistol.

"You was hurt, bad. None of us thought ya would make it, but ya got better." Zuud said softly as Lissandra took the pistol from her. "I missed ya, Gee. All of us missed ya." Madness sang in her tone, but more regret. "Chatter says ya need that. I made it thinkin' of you. You will find it fits."

"Zuud! No!" Eudico snapped as Lissandra spun the pistol in her hand. The feeling was so familiar, but not. She hadn't held such a weapon in a long time, but she knew what it could do. Oh, she knew.

"You are not my enemy, Eudico of Fortuna. Be very glad of that." Lissandra said as she spun the pistol again and then nodded to Zuud. "Well balanced. Thank you."

"Gee is dead!" Eudico begged. "You cannot be her!"

"Yes, Gee is." Lissandra said softly as she nodded to Zuud and then turned to Eudico. "My name is Lissandra. As I say, I am not your enemy."

"The Business will piss his pants." Eudico gulped. He had been one of the first to learn not to use her for some things.

"I don't care." Lissandra was still unemotional. "Give me clothing, preferably armored or I am walking out of here to talk to whoever is leading the Vent Kids with nothing on."

"She will do it." Zuud warned, her tone oddly sane for a moment. Fear apparently did that to her. "You know she will."

"Yes, I do." Eudico said weakly."I barely remember… You..." She shook her head. "I will get the clothing, I just… Please! Don't kill anyone!"

"I have not killed since I left Fortuna." Lissandra was still a rock. "I have no wish to kill again. What I was here was needed at the time, but I am not who I was. Be very glad of that."

"I am." Eudico slumped a bit. "Do I want to know what happened to you after the purges?"

"No." Lissandra said flatly. "I need to talk to the Clergy and the Tenno. The mission may have gone off the rails, but we can get it back on them."

"What will you do?" Eudico asked, only to pause as Zuud chortled, a hint of malicious madness entering her laughter. "Zuud!"

"You know what she is gonna do!" Zuud retorted. "You know why her mom kept her isolated for so long. Why Cassandra never let her out to fight."

Some weapons were simply too dangerous to let loose. Ever. The Reverend Mother knew that. Anyo or whoever had shot the ship down was about to find out along with anyone else who got in her way.

"Yeah." Eudico said weakly. "I do." She slowly forced herself to relax. "For what it is worth? Lissandra? I hope you find peace."

"The only peace I will find is a grave, Eudico." Lissandra said with a grunt as she sat and started examining the pistol. It looked as if it would fire self contained bolts of energy that would explode on impact. Knowing Zuud? Devastating impact. It also looked to have been hushed? A silenced pistol that fired explosive rounds? Ouch! "It cannot be soon enough."

"Don't give up." Zuud sounded clear headed for a moment and that seemed even more shocking. "Ya ain't who ya was. Ya gots a chance to be better. Your mom tried."

"She did. So did many others." Lissandra bowed her head and started to sing softly.

'Dance, then, wherever you may be,

I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,

And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be,

And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said he'

The white in her mind retreated, but it wasn't gone. It was never gone. It never would be. She jerked as Zuud started to sing as well!

I danced in the morning when the world was begun,

And I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun,

And I came down from Heaven and I danced on the Earth,

In Bethlehem I had my birth,…

Now, Eudico was singing softly. Her voice wasn't great, but she too remembered the old tune Lissandra's mother had taught the girl to help her after her personal troubles. The evil inside the girl wouldn't go away, but maybe, just maybe, Lissandra could survive.

The question?

How many others would.

'Lord of the Dance' is obviously not my work.